The Need and Importance of Automatic Call Distribution System in Call Centers
For today’s businesses, call centers act as an important platform to get connected with customers. Through this medium, businesses can resolve customer issues, enhance their image, and build a huge customer base. Even customers find call centers an efficient way to connect with a particular business for any kind of assistance. That’s perhaps the key reason that most call centers deal with a huge volume of calls. To manage the flow of calls efficiently, a number of technology solutions are available in the market. One such solution is the Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system. The system helps to manage call traffic by evenly distributing the calls among available agents irrespective of where they are located. By routing the calls automatically to the available agents, the system helps to reduce the burden on a single agent while reducing the customer’s waiting time. With the help of the ACD system, call centers can eliminate the need to handle the calls manually, thus the agents can focus more on enhancing their efficiency and achieving their objectives. The dynamic routing of incoming calls allows agents to showcase their expertise in solving the queries of customers.Features of Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) System
Some of the key features of the ACD system include:- Skill-Based Routing: ACD system is programmed in a manner that it can route the incoming calls to the right agent based on the skills required to solve the customer’s queries. Skill-based routing helps in addressing the customer’s issues in a fast and efficient manner.
- Call Back Facility: The callback feature of the ACD system allows callers to choose the callback option so that they don’t have to wait long for their turn while keeping the phone on hold.
- Call Monitoring: The call monitoring feature allows management to monitor the agent calls for the purpose of providing training and improving customer support services.
- Multiple Location Connectivity: With an ACD system in place, calls can be routed easily to multiple locations including the remote locations where agents are available.
Why there is a need of Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system for call centers?
Some of the key reasons that a call center must implement an ACD system include:- When There Is Huge Call Traffic: Well-established call centers generally face a huge volume of calls on a daily basis. Without proper management of calls, the customer waiting time or the number of calls on hold starts increasing, which further results in a low customer satisfaction rate. Always remember that making customers wait for long to talk to an agent can have an adverse or negative impact on the relationship between the customer and the organization. By incorporating an ACD call center software system, a large volume of calls can be managed effectively. It reduces the waiting time and ensures that the customer’s calls are connected to the most appropriate agents as soon as they become available.
- When There Is an Increased Downtime In Between Calls: Increased downtime in between the calls means reduced agent efficiency and productivity. Without a proper call management tool, the agents may have to spend a lot of their valuable time transitioning between each call, which results in increased downtime. With the implementation of the ACD system, calls can be assigned quickly and efficiently to the available agents without any downtime. The system uses an algorithm to route calls based on the customer’s details and agents’ progress in their current calls. Thus, the ACD system can be really beneficial to reducing downtime, increasing the agent’s efficiency, and managing the entire call flow with ease.
- When There Is Increased Agent’s Average Handle Time: The Average Handle Time or AHT is the average duration of the entire call transaction between the agent and the customer. The AHT can increase if the calls are being connected to the wrong agent who doesn’t have the right set of skills to solve a particular query. Struggling to find the right solution to a customer’s issue without having the right expertise or knowledge can increase the agent’s Average Handle Time to a great extent. To overcome this problem, an Automatic Call Distribution System can be implemented. The system can efficiently perform skill-based routing of the calls to the right agents based on the particular type of query, language, etc.
